A Study of Worker-Climate Activity in Britain

1. Historical Context

1a. 2009: Occupation and green jobs

A history of this movement could begin at many points, from the 1976 Lucas Plan, the Australian ‘green bans’ of the 1970s,[1] or the 1999 World Trade Organisation summit bringing together trade unions, indigenous groups and others against the destruction of global neoliberalism.[2] This report is primarily focused on recent activity in Britain over the last eight or so years, but we will set the scene by looking back a little earlier, to a time when the realities of climate change were increasingly being taken seriously in Britain. In 2009, a worker occupation of the Isle of Wight Vestas wind farm factory attempted to save promised green jobs. The occupation was a key moment in bringing together climate activists, trade unions and the socialist left. The demands made by the Vestas workers were explicitly political, calling on the government to nationalise the company and invest in an energy transition.[3] Around this time, other organisations were seeking to cohere an understanding of climate change as a trade union issue. CACCTU, for example, produced their One Million Climate Jobs pamphlet[4] which presented industrial climate action as a positive catalyst for *producing *huge amounts of jobs, rather than simply being a threat to them. At the same time, the Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) were using their newsletter[5] and organising events, giving a regular account of the movement’s activities as it developed.

1b. Growing organisation in the 2010s

As the climate movement grew across the 2010s, the worker-climate movement grew alongside it. Some of this took place through trade unionists supporting ongoing climate campaigning, such as the Fridays For Future school strikes, and being involved in collaborative initiatives like the Blackpool Trades Council’s support for anti-fracking[6], and Just Transition Wakefield[7]. Yet the movement also emerged directly within trade union organising. One early success in workplace organising involved the close collaboration between climate protesters and PCS museum workers around divestment of their workplaces.[8] Climate action originating from trade unions themselves meant establishing longer term union structures, such as non-affiliated groups of trade union members, green reps networks, and formal transition structures within trade unions and the TUC. The relationship between trade unions and the climate movement has developed in a different context in Scotland, which will be explored explicitly later in this report.

1c. 2019: Corbyn’s Labour, and the Green New Deal

During the Corbyn leadership of the Labour Party, some international attention was paid to British trade unions, due to the apparent potential for a trade union backed government. In July 2019, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy hosted ‘Energy Transition and Economy-Wide Decarbonisation’ which was a forum that brought together high-level elected members and staff from across multiple unions to discuss their positions towards potential transition policies which a Labour government might implement. With a left-led Labour government seeming a real possibility, the leaderships of major trade unions were willing to engage in discussions about transition, even those who were ideologically inclined to be antagonistic to transition politics. For example, these talks included the engagement of more climate-sceptical trade union leaders such as GMB general secretary Gary Smith. This same year, the WCP’s precursor organisation ‘Labour for a Green New Deal’ was founded, sharing an expansive GND-focused Labour Party conference motion[9] which was taken up widely by the party’s membership. At the party conference in September 2019, these sweeping demands to decarbonise and transform the economy became a primary focus, with the motion being forwarded by the FBU and backed by almost all of the affiliated unions. Incidentally, some of the most significant ongoing worker-climate campaigns, such as the Trade Union Clean Air Network’s (TUCAN) Air Quality campaign[10], and PCS’ Climate Emergency Declaration[11], were established in 2019 within this enabling political atmosphere.

1d. Events cohering

As with many movements, the process of cohering a collective consciousness around worker-climate activity has been uneven and is ongoing. Sometimes significant developments were made at events not dedicated to this specific purpose, such as Glastonbury music festival where the GJA was founded[12], and the 2019 Trade Union Festival ‘With Banners Held High’ as the origin of Just Transition Wakefield. Other times, events *have been held with the primary focus of bringing together this movement, such as our Worker-Climate Conference in 2022, the Climate Justice Coalition’s ‘We Make Tomorrow’ conference in 2023, and Workers Planet in 2025 and 2026. As described in more detail in the following section, events related to the wider climate movement have also had a significant impact on the labour *movement.

1e. COP26 helps cohere a movement

A key moment was the UNFCCC’s COP26, which was hosted in Glasgow in November 2021. Planning for this global event in Scotland brought climate groups and unions together, leading to the formation of a key organisation: the COP26 Coalition (which was later renamed as the Climate Justice Coalition). Using the global attention of hosting this prestigious international event, there was a flurry of climate-related activity amongst workers and within trade unions, such as the organisation of fringe meetings by unions such as the NEU, ASLEF and AUE. Importantly, this event was a key opportunity for the existing transition capacities built within the Scottish TUC (STUC) to be fully mobilised, meaning this body played an essential role in bringing trade unions together around the conference. A close collaborator of the STUC, Friends of the Earth Scotland held a ‘Just Transition Hub’ which hosted 10 in-person events highlighting the importance of ambitious worker-climate activity in Britain and beyond.[13] In addition, Glaswegian waste workers planned a strike in response to a prominent climate activist’s call to rally alongside the students’ strikes during the COP26 conference, giving a range of climate groups a chance to practice worker solidarity and learn about the trade union movement.[14] This momentum can also be linked to a range of policy changes within unions which were made around this time, notably the NEU passing its Zero Carbon Motion,[15] and UNISON publishing its ‘Getting to Net-Zero in UK Public Services’[16] report the same year.

1f. 2026: Year of Trade Union Climate Action

Over the following years, in trying to bring together a stronger and coherent worker-climate movement, various approaches have been taken, from conferences and workshops to joint campaigns. Most recently, the 2026 Year of Trade Union Climate Action[17] has attempted to rally and unite all this activity. Establishing coherence across the worker-climate movement is still an ongoing effort, with this task only becoming more important as the wider climate movement has been fragmented and diminished. Of course, the cross-union Year of Trade Union Climate Action campaign was not brought about overnight, but was rather the result of the cumulative efforts of workers, internal union groups and external organisations (notably the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group) to organise and rally to promote and enact climate action. In this report, we try to capture this cumulative effort which we mapped in our Movement Assessment. First, we consider the relationship between the wider climate movement and the worker-climate movement, drawing attention to when this relationship has had positive outcomes for both.

2. Relationship to the Wider Climate Movement

2a. Climate activism by workers, not as workers

Since the 2010s, the wider climate movement has had an uneven relationship with worker organising, with mainstream media and political narratives consistently attempting to solidify divisions between radical climate activists and the ‘authentic’ working class.

Though the climate movement as a whole included many individual workers, often there was little consideration of their collective power as workers. Many activists, newly radicalised by the pressing realities of the climate crisis, were susceptible to a politics of ‘urgentism’ represented by Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, which emphasised disruptive, attention-grabbing direct action tactics, often with the explicit goal of getting arrested or imprisoned. This urgent approach is understandable in the context of slim timeframes and irreversible tipping points given by scientists, unique to the climate crisis. However, their ‘beyond politics’ approach neglected longer term strategy, did not take an organising approach, and made no effort to connect to workers’ struggles of the past and present (something which a few members tried to address, e.g. XR Trade Unions).[18] XR and JSO undoubtedly raised the salience of climate as an issue amongst the public with press-grabbing tactics. But rather than centering the organised workforce from the start, these activists alienated workers by combining public-targeting tactics like roadblocks with a lack of a convincing plan to address concerns about job losses and energy availability. These failures have opened up ground for Reform and others on the right to appeal to fears of job insecurity and fuel poverty posed by the transition, fears not successfully addressed by the climate left.

2b. Climate and worker-climate alignment

Despite these tendencies being present, there were also many examples of groups and actions drawing together climate and worker struggles. Most prominent were the Fridays For Future school strikes, with young people taking inspiration from industrial tradition to organise school walk-outs and demonstrations. Many trade unionists expressed admiration for these actions, such as CACCTU, who coordinated a trade unionist solidarity delegation during the school strike demonstration in May 2019,[19] and the NEU which passed supportive motions at their national conference. Moreover, in 2019, a successful TUC motion (moved by UNITE) called for ‘a 30-minute workday campaign action to coincide with the global school strike on 20 September’.[20] Further cases of cross-movement collaborations are detailed below.

2c. Blackpool Trades Council

In the popular struggle against the Preston New Road fracking site, Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre Trades Council gave political and financial support to those taking direct action to stop development. When three activists were imprisoned, local trade unions supported a protest outside Preston prison, taking an active role in the movement which got them released. Blackpool TUC has consistently worked with local climate and other activists. This has included actions around COP climate conferences and the 2022 Conservative conference.[21] Beyond collaboration and co-hosting of protests with the climate movement, Blackpool TUC has put forward specifically trade union arguments for a just climate transition. Activists from the Trades Council took part in debates at a GMB conference in Blackpool, challenging the union’s support for fracking. They ran a Climate Jobs campaign, publishing a pamphlet which outlined how transition could create jobs locally.[22] The pamphlet calls for a climate jobs plan which will make the campaign against fracking stronger, understanding the need to propose an alternative economic vision for two reasons: first, so that workers are not forced to choose between jobs and the planet; second, to show the limitations of fracking compared to a longer term plan to create secure work and tackle inequality.

2d. Just Transition Wakefield

Following connections developed at the 2019 ‘With Banners Held High’ event organised between local trade union structures and Yorkshire & Humber TUC, a decision was made to bring together Friends of the Earth Wakefield and Wakefield trades council to form the new organisation ‘Just Transition Wakefield’.[23] Building this coalition enabled ongoing collaboration between Wakefield’s local climate and worker organising, making the most of a sympathetic Labour majority in the local council to develop a range of campaigns and policies. This group’s overall aim is to enable steps towards a just worker-led transition in Wakefield, and link up with wider struggles where fights must be coordinated beyond the local area. Alongside working directly with Wakefield District Council on emissions reduction initiatives, improving local biodiversity, and supporting green jobs, Just Transition Wakefield is also involved in wider initiatives, such as community wealth building and food sovereignty projects, and the campaign against Drax power station and its polluting impacts.[24]

2e. Just Transition Partnership

The Just Transition Partnership was established in 2016 as a result of direct collaboration between Friends of the Earth Scotland and the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC).[25] The Partnership is involved in ongoing lobbying for action to meet climate change targets in ways which protect workers' livelihoods and make Scotland more equal and inclusive. The Partnership includes collaboration between unions (UNISON, UNITE, PCS, UCU and CWU) and NGOs (WWF Scotland, the New Economics Foundation, Platform and Common Weal). So far, their advocacy in the Scottish Parliament has led to some tangible successful outcomes, including the establishment of the Just Transition Commission. This commission was established in the background of the SNP’s leadership in the devolved Scottish parliament, with the party balancing between taking limited progressive stances on many fronts, while being able to point to Westminster as the constraint on any more expansive changes. In this context, the Commission was successful in bringing just transition into frame within Scottish government policy; however, ten years on the JTP now recognises that solid policy changes have been limited.[26]

Another role played by the Partnership which is less publicly visible but highly important, is that of providing a neutral shared space across movements, allowing for challenging discussions around the future of energy and issues. Providing this movement space is important for coordinating shared responses to developments and avoiding the conflict between climate and labour movements which can be stoked by mainstream media and political figures and leave workers susceptible to the far right.

2f. COP26 Coalition

The COP26 Coalition, briefly mentioned earlier, is another example of how the prior activities of the wider climate movement have had an ongoing effect on worker-climate activity. Established in 2019 by Friends of the Earth Scotland, War on Want and the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, the Coalition aimed to respond to Glasgow hosting COP26 in 2021 by forming a grouping which would place justice at the centre of the climate movement; the goal was to achieve equality through collective bargaining, justice, and workers’ rights.[27] The coalition was renamed the Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) in 2022 as its work continued beyond the scope of COP26. Within this coalition, a specific trade union caucus was established (CJC-TUC) in order to mobilise trade unionists in the wider climate movement. The caucus continues to bring together union representatives, officials and members across the trade union movement to facilitate education and mobilisation for climate justice and a just transition. CJC is now one of the most widely recognised organising groups around climate justice.[28]

2g. Offshore

While these examples of cross-movement collaborations have led to independent groups/coalitions being established, there are other cases in which successful collaborations have produced other types of outcomes. One such example is the collaboration between Friends of the Earth Scotland, Platform and Uplift, who partnered to conduct a survey of over 1000 offshore oil and gas workers.[29] Though trade unions were not involved in its creation, the project soon gained widespread union support, with the RMT, GMB and UNITE all providing input. This project aimed to give voice to a section of workers whose current industry would need to be wound down in any climatically adequate transition, and are often caricatured by mainstream media and politics as a necessarily anti-environmental force. Beginning with initial surveying of workers around transition questions, the project led to co-developing and campaigning on specific demands which would facilitate the transition process.[30] The resulting report, which was published in 2024, was used to lobby Scottish Parliament for a Skills Passport scheme - a way to officially document worker accreditations and competencies as they leave the oil and gas sector. The demand was met, with the scheme being successfully launched in January 2025. Even with flawed implementation, it is an important example of workers putting forward their own proposal, and paves the way for others in heavy industry.[31]

2h. The power of collaboration

Even on smaller scales, collaborations provide the necessary conditions for some worker-climate action. As will be explored in more depth later, the creation of the Green New Deal bargaining claim at the University of Liverpool could be attributed to the direct involvement of student groups, such as SOS-UK and Liverpool’s Guild of Students, working with UCU, UNISON and UNITE.[32] Conversely, on an international scale, the worker occupation of the GKN Driveline factory in Florence, Italy, would not have been such a sustained effort if not for the support of cross-movement collaborative efforts. Since 2021 workers have occupied their factory against job losses, aiming to fundraise to buy out the site, taking direct control, and then to shift towards making green technology, having drawn up detailed plans for producing cargo bikes and solar panels. This combination of worker militancy and ambition in control of planning of green production means this struggle is an essential one for envisioning where our movement could develop.

In Britain, various political events have hosted GKN workers and associated activists to raise awareness and gain shareholders for the workers’ buy-out of the factory. The solidarity campaign is spearheaded by the CJC and supported by unions such as RMT, FBU, IWGB, UCU and organisations such as Scot.E3, Tipping Point UK, Safe Landing, and the GJA.[33] This coalition both promotes the demands and actions of the GKN Factory Collective, and fundraises to support the newly established cooperative, with international solidarity allowing this struggle to continue being a guiding light for wider worker-climate efforts.

3. Scaling Up

3a. Range of scales

Climate justice demands huge economic transformation, yet the influence of each union, branch and workplace is necessarily limited. A consistent challenge for those looking to take workplace action on climate is a lack of clarity on how to scale up their demands and tactics. Green reps have often focused on small, day-to-day ways to green their workplaces, such as reducing and recycling waste and getting the employer to offer support for staff to use greener transport options. Such demands are accessible starting points, but their material impact is limited, even if they can have benefits in raising consciousness and confidence of the workers involved. Whilst green collective bargaining which wins change at a workplace or sector-wide level is the clearest way for workers to leverage their power, successes using this method have been limited.

This section will focus on the specific, practical workplace action taken on transition. However, it is important to understand that workers have also taken part in putting forward a wider vision of how a change around climate could transform society. Framing climate action as a way to tackle wider social and economic issues, such as high energy bills and cost of living, is one part of this approach. Some unions like UNISON and Community, and campaign groups like Tipping Point UK, have pointed out that climate action can be something that will materially benefit their members and supporters. Others have articulated visions for addressing climate change widely, through broad transition plans and Green New Deal policies drawing on traditional socialist demands such as public ownership. This has allowed various workers and unions to push for a ‘State-Supported Transition’ and a possible ‘National Climate Service’ - a vision put forward by PCS for a mass public institution in the style of the NHS.[34] Even broader is the call for system change, posing capitalism as the root cause of climate change and using public concern over climate change to push for wider social transformation. This characterises the approaches of TUED and the New Lucas Plan.

While building these visions is essential, in an environment of consistent left defeat and trade union weakness, workers often need to build the confidence to feel these massive changes can be made and take part in imagining what they could look like. To develop this confidence, we must answer the question: how can workers demand changes in their workplace or sector which are both meaningful and winnable in the short to medium term?

3b. Building from limited wins

Many within this movement return to the need to develop escalating targets and demonstrate the ability to win them, which is essential to build confidence for workers to industrially plan transitions. There are some specific cases of workers’ demands being met, such as the adoption of the previously mentioned Skills Passport Scheme for North Sea oil workers, and the negotiation of electric vehicle production at Ellesmere Port in 2021.[35] In other instances, large institutions such as the TUC have had some success in lobbying the Labour government to develop limited schemes such as the Warm Home Plans, or partial nationalisation within the steel sector. However, these are not enough for a movement that must seek transformation across our society and economy. Therefore, with few clear models of how to win on worker-climate demands, there is an urgent need for tactical exploration and experimentation which can be learnt from and built on.

3c. Universal demands and specific demands

Looking at cases in which more tangible worker-climate demands have been developed, we can usefully break these down into two broad types: ‘Universal’ and ‘Sector-Specific’. ‘Universal’ demands can be applied across many different workplaces, such as retrofitting buildings, divesting pensions, or health and safety adjacent campaigns such as those around maximum temperatures. ‘Sector-Specific’ demands are those which tend to identify with particular industries and relate to how specific workplaces might transition away from the fossil fuel economy. Although there is not always a clear divide between these two approaches, they are worth exploring as distinct trends which present different dynamics, opportunities and challenges. The sections below highlight some examples of each approach. Many more examples of demands, and of the other approaches to worker-climate action discussed in this report, are available in our Worker Transition Database.

Universal Demands

3d. Health and safety

The recurring focus on health and safety as an avenue for worker-climate organising is significant. Many elements of work under the conditions of climate crisis and the fossil fuel economy create significant risks to the wellbeing of workers, such as industrial waste, air pollution, and overheating. While this gives an intuitive link between the fights around climate and worker safety, the structure of trade union legislation also creates significant motivation to lean heavily on health and safety as a framework for transition demands. The 1992 Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act limits the scope of industrial action primarily to disputes on pay, and ‘terms and conditions of employment’, as opposed to illegal ‘political strikes’.[36] Restrictive laws have been a significant factor in workers organising around transition seeking to legitimise demands as ‘non-political’ and legally part of workplace conditions. Not only does this provide legal cover for certain types of transition organising, it also means the legally designated health and safety rep can use some facilities for these efforts.

3e. Health and safety officers

In practice, union health and safety representative structures have been a useful pre-existing tool to pursue climate action within workplaces. For example, although they temporarily moved towards distinct environmental officers, UNITE’s default approach has been to integrate climate-related activities into the role of health and safety officers.[37] This tactic was also used by the BFAWU, which continues to maintain a merged role. Unions such as the NEU recommend health and safety reps participate in green bargaining discussions if a workplace does not have a green rep.[38] More broadly, health and safety officers across various unions have found their work relating to the worker-climate movement by getting involved in campaigns such as Heat Strike, and the TUCAN Workplace Air Quality campaign, which are both detailed later in this report.

3f. Trade Union Clean Air Network

After being the first UK union to establish an air quality policy, UCU joined with the long-running Hazards Campaign and GJA to found TUCAN in 2019. Built to tackle air quality in the workplace and beyond, TUCAN has brought together 13 UK trade unions around its charter.[39]** **As well as producing practical guidance and campaign resources, TUCAN developed their Clean Air Charter to help workers and union health and safety reps identify and act on workplace air pollution.[40] They provide support in monitoring and gathering evidence of workplace air quality across a range of sectors, alongside organising seminars and events on air pollution and climate risks that bring together trade unionists, campaigners, academics, and local authorities. In addition to this, TUCAN also has an ongoing parliamentary (and international) lobby for occupational and indoor air pollution to be recognised in clean air policy, and to demand a worker-led process for stronger standards and means of enforcement.[41]

3g. Heat Strike

Like air pollution, rising temperatures are also framed as a workplace health and safety issue. Faced with the heatwaves of summer 2022, a group of activists came together to found Heat Strike. Inspired by many BFAWU branches successfully fighting for temperature control measures in bakeries and food factories, this group demands national maximum working temperatures and a heat furlough scheme.[42] To grow the coalition, the group hosted dinners bringing together sympathetic union members such as those from BFAWU and FBU with members of climate groups. Over 2023-25, they ran workshops and developed resources outlining the possibilities for workplace action on heat.[43] Rather than aiming to encourage industrial action each summer, the group prioritised building groundwork for the next government-issued extreme heat warnings, which came in summer 2026. Over June-August 2026, workers took a variety of actions, with some setting up thermometers for monitoring or informally coordinating on longer breaks. On the side which looked more like a ‘heat strike’, this included collectively agreeing not to turn up in the morning, or invoking Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act to remove themselves from a workplace setting presenting ‘serious and imminent danger’.[44] However, the rights under Section 44 are importantly not collective rights, so while workers made individual decisions, or informally coordinated actions around stopping work, these were not legally protected as official strike action.

3h. Heat Strike in action

Perhaps the most prominent sectors taking these actions were bus drivers and teachers. Building on Heat Strike having cultivated relationships with drivers over the few years before, these workers had resources and WhatsApp groups readily available as they faced dangerous conditions in their buses’ cabs. During the heatwaves, many drivers exercised Section 44 rights to stop working in unsafe conditions. While this was reinforced by UNITE issuing all its bus driver members with an official letter to show to management when conditions become too hot, often this action was limited to experienced drivers who were confident in understanding and exercising their individual rights. This led to 1,500 Arriva drivers going on strike to demand the company take more substantial measures to adapt its fleet for the weather conditions, successfully winning promises for all buses to be air conditioned by May 2027.[45]

Some media attention was given to schools through the heatwaves, where despite the risk to staff and students, many headteachers were reluctant to plan for school closures. Using the 2023 ‘Joint Union Heatwave Protocol’[46] as a basis for action in schools, workers used a range of investigative tactics as evidence for closing around 850 schools during this period. During this period, the NEU issued calls for ditching uniforms, pausing OFSTED inspections and establishing a maximum working temperature for schools. Others have taken more creative approaches. In one industrial laundry in Kernow, Cornwall, a BFAWU organiser kept his staff cool with a ‘go slow’ approach,[47] bringing in water coolers and getting them to use smaller bottles to ensure they took more refill breaks, before escalating demands to building adaptations. As extreme heat becomes more common and prolonged across British summers, the trend from 2026 is likely to grow, where official trade union structures proactively take on some limited policies and measures responding to these conditions. For the Heat Strike campaign, this is clearly a win and should be taken as a challenge to push unions further to demand more expansive, ambitious changes around workplace temperatures, such as mass retrofitting of workplaces and preventative government action.

3i. Retrofitting

Another example of a universally applicable demand is retrofitting - the process of making an existing building more energy efficient, through measures such as installing insulation or electric heating. Many workplaces across different sectors are connected to specific buildings, and so upgrading these buildings would both reduce energy use and improve workplace conditions. This has the potential to overlap with existing campaigns, such as Heat Strike, as a long-term change which would not only address heat waves, but also cold working conditions and excess heating costs. Demands to retrofit buildings have the potential to build unity between workers focused mostly on more obvious and immediate conditions such as workplace temperatures and job creation, and those invested in longer-term climate demands such as lowering energy use across the economy.

3j. Retrofit in bargaining

Prioritising these demands could have a huge impact in sectors which are structured around specific large buildings, such as schools and hospitals. One of the demands in the aforementioned Joint Union Heatwave Protocol is for schools to be retrofitted to avoid hazardous temperatures. In the NEU’s redesigned Green Rep training,[48] emphasis is put on retrofitting schools as a possible green bargaining demand which teachers could organise around. Within UNISON’s green reps network, discussions are ongoing around how demands focused on retrofitting could be applied to council owned and operated buildings. Despite this interest, we have not yet been able to directly confirm any cases of retrofit being included in an industrial bargaining agenda. Although it could be a transformative demand, there are many challenges including the short-term disruption of retrofitting a building to a high-quality and how to approach many buildings which are not directly owned by the employer.

While the TUC is currently working with the government on how its ‘Warm Homes’ scheme[49] could contribute to the skills and jobs needed for retrofit, this limited programme will be far from the full scale of a retrofit agenda which could be demanded by a worker-climate movement. If the attention being paid to this demand can be translated into industrial successes, there seems to be a significant potential for an impactful, replicable transition step which could be fought for across many workplaces and sectors. If bargaining around retrofit is successful at scale through councils or schools, fulfilling this would necessitate the growth of a larger retrofit workforce out of or parallel to the often precarious, non-unionised construction, building repairs, or building services industries. In bargaining around retrofit, consideration should be given to condition contracting on high-quality, union-recognised work, therefore creating conditions for a new site of worker-strength in a growing green sector.

3k. Divestment in culture

Many employers and institutions which are not directly part of carbon-intensive industrial processes nonetheless have financial links to the fossil fuel industry. These have been targeted by both climate activists and worker-climate organisers through the demand of divestment. Often, cultural institutions receive donations and sponsorship as a form of reputation laundering for these extractive companies, such as in the ongoing relationship between the British Museum and BP, with a £50 million redevelopment partnership.[50] In this context, PCS workers coordinated with sustained campaigns such as ‘BP or not BP’, successfully pressuring employers such as the Royal Opera House and the National Portrait Gallery to cut historic relationships with their former fossil fuel sponsors.[51] Furthermore, a Musicians’ Union-backed boycott of several music festivals successfully forced Barclays to withdraw its sponsorships following significant media attention towards its investments, both in fossil fuels and in defence companies, which enable the genocide in Gaza.[52]

3l. Pension divestment

In the other direction, looking at how money is invested into fossil fuel companies, workers across many unions have understood the urgency of withdrawing their collective wealth - in the form of pension funds - from such investments. These massive collections of workers’ wages are overwhelmingly managed through the finance industry, using mechanisms such as index funds which default investment into huge companies with reliably high returns, such as fossil fuel giants and the increasingly dominant tech sector. Starting with the Musicians Union in 2021,[53] and followed by other unions such as Equity, UNISON, UCU and PCS, an increasing number of union members are recognising the potential of pension divestment. These struggles for workers to exercise their mostly theoretical right to influence how their pensions are invested is exemplified in the follow-up from UNISON’s 2018 conference unanimously passing a motion to divest local government pension schemes from oil and gas investments.[54] Far from guaranteeing divestment, this has only opened the path for local government branches such as Greater Manchester[55] and Hampshire County[56] to campaign for their pension schemes to divest**. **Notably, this fossil fuel divestment work in UNISON laid the groundwork for union members to campaign against Israeli genocidal investments.[57] In 2024, Equity for a Green New Deal was successful in leading the push to divest their union’s £130 million pension fund away from fossil fuels.[58] Nonetheless, unlike many other ‘universal’ demands like Heat Strike, pension divestment does not materially improve workers’ own pay and conditions, so it can be difficult to persuade workers to take action if they are not already politicised.

3m. Divesting universities

For fossil fuel capital, partnerships and sponsorships in universities represent massive bargains, benefitting from relevant state-supported research and development, alongside providing stable pipelines of graduates. In this context, university workers have taken action in pushing towards divestment throughout their employers’ activities, which in a university are especially wide-ranging. Coordination between UCU and the student climate campaigning organisation ‘People and Planet’ has been continuous, with UCU’s 2022 national congress supporting P&P’s campaign ‘Fossil Free Careers’ to remove oil, gas and mining from all recruitment activity.[59] Meanwhile at the University of Cardiff, a UCU rep surveyed staff members on green issues, identifying many issues and ideas for change within the institution. The survey was used as a basis for negotiation with management, successfully gaining facilities time for the reps’ green activities. This allowed sustained activity, winning several demands including a green travel scheme and the university divesting from fossil fuels.[60]

In 2022, workers at the University of Liverpool took an unusual approach of pulling together a ‘Green New Deal’ inspired bargaining claim, looking across their institution and making an expansive list of demands which would shift their workplaces’ investments and practices away from fossil fuels and build towards transition targets. This built on UCU launching a ‘Green New Deal’ bargaining framework in 2020, encouraging branches to bring more expansive transition planning into bargaining claims.[61] Unlike the practical changes in Cardiff, this broad package of demands was not intended to be escalated to industrial action if not met by management. Instead they aimed for a propagandistic document showing the scale of change needed, and setting an aspiration for the kind of changes workers need to be able to push for to change huge parts of the economy.

3n. The power and limits of universal demands

These universal demands have a powerful role in forging unity across the worker-climate movement, building an understanding that the climate crisis affects all of us and places workers in a shared struggle. This becomes even more tangible as many of these demands deal with factors such as heat and air quality which can be physically experienced in our day-to-day lives. However, transition does not affect every industry equally: very different changes will be needed depending on the specific forms of production and processes which are important to a sector. For example, for the NEU and UCU, finding forms of curriculum change which usefully educate and engage young people on transition issues is a unique, essential challenge for their workplaces. While these sector-specific demands are important to identify across the economy, the rest of this section will focus on how demands are articulated by union members in carbon-heavy industries. These require particular attention, since they face a difficult tension, where their existing jobs and industrial processes can seem threatened by the prospect of a climate transition. As explored below, this requires a political approach which can look beyond the current workplace and understand these workers, with essential skills and experiences, as key agents in the transition process.

Sector-Specific Demands in Heavy Industry

3o. Worker planning in heavy industry

A transformative shift away from fossil fuels necessitates some industries being fundamentally reshaped or even systematically wound-down. This presents huge challenges for the workers movement aiming to plan this transition, and a potentially critical dividing line along which capital can split the working class. Rather than ceding space on either the importance of these sectoral changes or the workers involved, the movement must proactively engage and support workers in planning how they want to refocus their industrial capacities, help their communities, and reshape their lives. This process is made even more challenging since it takes place in a context of massive heavy industry offshoring and job losses, so where transition demands are taken up, it is in the face of crisis.

3p. Rolls Royce

Possibly our strongest example of this kind of worker-led industrial planning in heavy industry is the Rolls Royce industrial combine. Formed in 2021 as workers at Barnoldswick Rolls Royce plant were facing heavy job losses, the workers at these factories joined with their regional UNITE structures, MP Zarah Sultana’s team, and Coventry for a Green New Deal. Together, this combine designed and tested a series of workshops to facilitate workers coming together to think through how their industrial capacity, previously focused on military submarine turbine production, could be reused for ecologically positive ends. Taking inspiration from the history of the Lucas Plan, these efforts gathered significant attention and support across the left. While these workshops were framed in terms of finding alternative profitable forms of production for the plants, Rolls Royce’s management were hostile to the principle of their workers being involved in industrial planning. Although some within the combine saw there may have been energy to run these workshops outside of work hours without management’s agreement, this was not pursued, and may have been a point where the support of a wider movement could have pushed this important effort further.[62] The industrial dispute was concluded with a successful deal secured between UNITE and Rolls Royce to keep the plant running for another decade,[63] leaving out any imminent transition demands which workers began to explore.

3q. Other efforts in heavy industry

There are a few examples of carbon-heavy industries taking on transition demands in response to threats to jobs, such as the Steel Workers' Demonstrations in 2023 and the Tata Steel Industrial Action in 2024.[64] In 2019, shipyard workers at Harland and Wolff launched an occupation demanding re-nationalisation and a shift to produce renewable infrastructure. After nine weeks of holding their shipyard, the workers managed to secure their jobs, though were not able to force a shift to renewable technologies.[65] Both these examples raise the wider question of political economy, since their transition demands would require a large programme of state intervention to create renewable and domestic supply chains.

3r. Grangemouth oil refinery

More recently, following plans to close the Grangemouth oil refinery announced in 2024, the campaign to ‘Keep Grangemouth Working’ was founded. They compared the refinery workers’ fight to the battle between the coal miners and Thatcher in the 1980s, demanding changes be planned with the kinds of justice and care which were entirely absent in the transition 40 years earlier. The closure of the plant threatened 2822 direct and indirect jobs, and demonstrated an immediate lack of transition support from Starmer’s labour government. Through continuous pressure from UNITE and the STUC, closure has been delayed through a government investment of £120 million to save 500 remaining jobs, without responding to the demand to take a ‘transitional (public ownership) stake’ in the company.[66] This limited lobbying victory can be contrasted with the earlier closure of engineering firm BiFab’s yards in 2019, where the offshoring of production of wind turbine jackets for the Scottish power system was a major blow to some workers’ faith in transition politics.[67] The latest investment in Grangemouth may limit some amount of this alienation by preserving some jobs in the oil refinery. However it does not demonstrate a possibility of winning jobs in other less environmentally destructive industries, and therefore has enabled Reform UK to come out in unequivocal support of retaining jobs at the facility and against net zero action.

3s. Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station

Perhaps the most successful planning of redeployment and transition support took place at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, where workplace reps from across the three unions (UNITE, GMB and Prospect) reacted to the government’s intention to close all coal power stations by 2024 by engaging in joint planning with their employer Uniper. Beginning in 2020, they successfully planned for 154 workers to reskill, retrain and find new high-quality jobs through various methods: internal transfers in Uniper; external hiring through relationship building with other companies; support and funding from Uniper to attend external trainings; and a ‘People’s Hub’ acting as an on-site job centre.[68] Within this process, the support of German trade unions to reinforce the need for this planning was referenced by union members as an important source of support. The story of Ratcliffe is valuable in showing the possibility of high-quality transition planning which can take place within a carbon-heavy workplace, though crucially with a highly cooperative employer and relatively few workers involved in the site. It also illustrates the importance of solidarity from other workers in supporting these struggles to persist, a factor which has enabled the arguably most inspiring example of worker-climate action, the GKN collective, outlined in 2h.

3t. Proactivity in sector-specific demands

As mentioned at the start of this section, all these examples take place in the context of acute crisis and threat of job losses. This means these workers, seeing that they have no more stable option, are open to relatively expansive thinking around transition. However, it also means these propositional efforts in heavy industry tend to start from a point of real vulnerability, and any concessions won tend to be around preserving jobs in these sectors rather than implementing steps towards transition. To build a strong culture of propositional planning across the industries which face existential risk, the worker-climate movement must build links with workers across sectors, supporting them to engage in proactive planning in their workplace and communities.

4. Union Structures

4a. Union structures: a necessary prerequisite

Across trade unions, members are actively trying to create structures for transition organising which can support and go beyond any single workplace action. They engage in a variety of methods, such as motions to conferences, building networks of green reps, developing related activist organisations, and shaping their union’s staffed transition structures. Whilst the introduction of structures themselves should not be mistaken for a win on climate, they are a necessary prerequisite for climate action, creating the time, resources, political education and resilience needed for worker-climate successes - especially the more ambitious propositional planning.

4b. Motions

As complex, mass membership organisations with accompanying bureaucracies, unions are always being contested. Ideally, this is primarily between groups of members putting forward differing views of the interests and visions which their union should prioritise; however, it is often sections of their bureaucracies who are the most significant actors in shaping the various policies and actions. In theory, each union’s national conference is the chance for union members to democratically engage in union policy making and political direction. Members wishing to push transition action within their union’s structure often attempt to use motions, despite the frequency of structural challenges and uneven implementation. Branches who are proactive on climate issues advocate their own motions to be discussed nationally. UCU is an example of this, with motions being put forward by branches and supported by UCU’s Climate and Ecological Emergency Committee meetings.[69]

Sometimes, motions are formulated by an external activist organisation to be adapted by members, such as Heat Strike’s model motion which influenced those passed by the NEU, FBU and Equity.[70] While they often function as gestures by the national membership towards climate issues, at their best, union motions have led to tangible action and cohering efforts around particular focal points for more effective coordination. A motion by the BFAWU at TUC Congress 2025, with support from CACCTU, was passed unanimously,[71] leading to the creation of the Year of Trade Union Climate Action. At the 2026 TUC Congress, delegates voted for a composite motion which included calls for an enforceable workplace temperature and the implementation of a Green New Deal.[72] More valuable research could be done in tracing how motions, particularly within individual unions, are formed and under what conditions they lead to practical actions and changes; as outlined in the Methodology, we have not been able to do this as part of the Movement Assessment.

4c. Green reps

A recurring focus of this report is how trade unions have looked to build structures around workers’ involvement in climate issues in the workplace. This is often done through forming ‘Green Rep’ positions and networks. Since this is not a legally recognised position, those who take up the role do not receive facilities time for this work. In 3e, we explored the overlap of how the Health and Safety officer position, as a legally recognised role with facilities time, is often combined with the green rep responsibilities. While this gives some time and protection for workers taking on these responsibilities, it can also lead to a tension in one person holding all these responsibilities, particularly if they have primarily taken the position to pursue climate politics. To bring together the existing green reps, some unions have coordinated green reps networks such as those within the NEU, PCS, BFAWU, UNISON, and UCU. Through these networks they facilitate sessions for mutual support and coordination between green reps’ activities. Additionally, the TUC has hosted semi-regular calls from across unions to share approaches, along with other forms of support from their transition staff.

Supporting the development of green reps can provide some long-term capacity for scaling worker-climate activity, and has been prioritised in campaigns for facilities time for green reps and UNISON’s unionwide drive to fill every environment officer position.[73] However, any workplace rep is only as strong as the power they can build alongside their fellow workers. A collective approach to transition politics in the workplace must be taken, avoiding a recurring dynamic with green reps being viewed as the sole person responsible for climate as a siloed issue. Between the various challenges mentioned in this report, the presence of a green rep is far from enough to guarantee transformative action in the workplace.

4d. Pay claims

Existing bargaining practices across trade unions can often be a way to integrate climate into usual union business, whilst expanding the definition of pay and conditions to broader economic and political questions. Despite the name, it is common for pay claims to address issues beyond pay, as part of proposals by both trade unions and employers alike. In 2023, the joint unions in further education - GMB, NEU, UCU, UNISON and UNITE - put forward a pay claim which included the demand of a national green new deal agreement on a just transition for the sector, to include plans for skill development, strategies and organisational bodies to make this ambition possible. The negotiations led to the development in 2025 of the Just Transition Framework, a joint agreement for guidance on a just transition. The joint unions and the Association of Colleges are now asking FE colleges to adopt the framework.[74]

4e. TUC activity

As the federation of the majority of English and Welsh unions, the Trades Union Congress has the potential to play a significant role in worker-climate politics. The TUC first put dedicated staff capacity towards transition in February 2021 with the initial staff coming from Transition Economics and Platform, following previous organisational collaborations. From this position, the initial few staff members were able to support and highlight existing worker-climater activity, such as with their collaboration with the Global Labour Institute to produce publicly accessible write-ups of key case studies. Up to now, the TUC’s approach to transition organising has been through close cooperation with aligned think tanks and NGOs.

When the TUC was successful in securing more external funding for transition roles, they looked to hire several more staff members for sector-specific approaches. With a limited number of enthusiastic, proactive workplace reps focused on transition issues, it made sense from the TUC’s position to hire these people into the new roles. This reveals a tension which runs through the transition staff structures of both the TUC and individual unions: the tendency for the few highly engaged members to be hired, leaving the lay positions without their most dedicated organisers.

In 2024, the team was expanded, with staff aiming to codevelop and organise for transition pathways within specific carbon-intensive manufacturing sectors (steel, ceramics, glass, building materials, cement, automotives, and chemicals). These attempts to co-develop transition plans in industry presented various challenges, such as finding workers who could prioritise leading on transition planning among other pressures and ongoing employee negotiations. Since 2024, TUC transition staff have had another restructure of roles, with some sector-specific work remaining, alongside a sharing of responsibilities across other approaches such as lobbying and supporting green reps. This transition planning work continues, both in the TUC and STUC, labelled as ‘future-proofing’ projects.[75] While these efforts are likely important in engaging deeply with high-carbon industrial workers around transition issues, the sensitivity of these relationships and these workers’ relationships to their employers mean that very little is made publicly accessible about the progress of these projects. Delicate, opaque situations like these represent an ongoing challenge for our overall movement to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our approaches as a whole.

4f. TUC output

The TUC has various other ongoing workstreams aimed at worker-climate organising. Alongside producing reports, proposing policy and lobbying, the TUC hosts training courses for union green reps as well as facilitating a National Green Reps Network. They organise a variety of workshops to encourage cross-movement networking and knowledge sharing, which is supported by the regular publication of their ‘Worker-Led Transition’ and ‘Futureproofing’ newsletters. Another key output is the gathering and dissemination of information and resources to support the movement. Some examples include their ‘Heatwave Plan for Workplaces’,[76] ‘Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition Toolkit’,[77] and ‘Workplace Flooding Guidance’.[78] The TUC also engages with unions and external organisations to support their advocacy work, such as coordinating with the ITUC to secure representation of UK trade unions at significant international events like the UN’s annual climate conferences, as well as partnering with the GJA to conduct a survey of local authorities on the extent to which they liaise with unions on climate issues.

Focusing on the 2025 ‘All to Play For’ event hosted by the TUC in Durham, the federation attempted to bring together a range of stakeholders - including grassroots trade union campaigners, local government administrators, and industry lobbyists, ministers, MPs, and wider climate activists - to discuss supporting offshore energy supply chains in the north-east of England.[79] This broad range of participants from across the state, capital, and labour which the TUC brought together here is symptomatic of the several institutional roles it seeks to play. As discussed earlier, the unions which the TUC represents are contested organisations containing both corporatist and more confrontational elements, and the federation itself is always seeking to balance between these approaches. Alongside encouraging and supporting grassroots worker-climate organising, it also seeks to shape government policy, mediating between all these stakeholders to create consent around policy directions which it feels would benefit the unions. Within such contested spaces, there is a need for worker-climate activists to shift the agenda beyond the TUC, with more alignment needed across workers in Britain.

5. Plotting the Unions

5a. Mapping different unions

As contested member-organisations, overall approaches and structures can vary significantly across and within unions. Many aspects of this variation are outside the scope of what can be explored here, with the focus being on how unions approach and take activity around the politics of workers transition. Below, we will not cover every union, but a sampling of those which have particularly interesting dynamics to explore in relation to transition; many more examples are available for readers to explore in our Worker Transition Database. We hope that members of other unions not listed here can use the following section to inform an exploration of their own union’s activity and guide their own strategic interventions. Looking at the potential for transition campaigning in each union, a few key factors to consider are: scale of the union, how the sectors it represents perceive themselves to be affected by climate and transition, and the historic political culture of the institution in question.

5b. UNITE Environmental Taskforce

Across Britain's three biggest unions, UNITE, UNISON, and GMB, approaches to transition are highly varied. As massive institutions with complex internal bureaucracies and power politics, it can be hard to track where particular efforts have aligned with fairly opaque changes within the union structures. In UNITE, this can be seen when looking at what is publicly available for the UNITE Environmental Taskforce, a structure which was established in 2021.[80] In the time it was active between 2021-22, it was responsible for hosting an online ‘Workers’ Led Future’ conference,[81] publishing six issues of ‘UNITE Environmental Quarterly’ which was a publication giving an overview of activities taking place in and around UNITE on climate issues,[82] and offering environmental training sessions for UNITE members.[83] Despite this promising start, it became inactive in 2022, with little transparency to members around why, or any formal announcement of its finishing.

5c. UNITE ‘No Ban Without a Plan’ and grassroots network

As a union which represents workers from many different sectors, UNITE’s approach to transition organising can be highly inconsistent. Many of the instances of workers in heavy industry engaging in transition planning mentioned through this report are represented by UNITE, demonstrating the union’s willingness to engage with some seriousness when it is clear that no alternatives exist for its members' jobs. This politics has also led to the union’s ongoing ‘No Ban Without A Plan’ campaign,[84] which contains both a justified call for state intervention for extractive workers’ future, and abdicates the central role UNITE itself must plan in this facilitating proactive worker-led planning. In the unsurprising absence of government action, this campaign has excused General Secretary Sharon Graham to be enthusiastically supportive of a new Rosebank oil field development.[85] Frustration at their union’s de facto alignment with the fossil fuel industry has led members to start UNITE Grassroots Climate Justice Caucus (UGCJC), an unofficial grouping of members campaigning for just transition politics within the union. Since being founded in 2023, UGCJC has written motions and hosted fringes at UNITE’s national conference, educated members on using UNITE’s structures for transition aims, and participated in events supporting workers at sites such as Port Talbot.[86]

Self-organised members groups such as UGCJC and GMB for a Green New Deal (discussed below) can give an opportunity for workers to organise around positions which are seen as radical by their union’s bureaucracy, and so would be difficult to take forward in official structures. However, these groups must maintain a critical awareness of where interventions are possible, even if difficult, within official structures, or risk becoming alienated from other members and opportunities for change through the union. Parallels to the opportunities and threats of the worker-climate movement within UNITE can be found in the Unite4Palestine group, which argues that UNITE leadership has stifled internal democracy in favour of supporting arms sales.[87]

5d. UNISON

Around 10 years ago, UNISON’s structure shifted focus from climate being a ‘citizenship’ to a ‘core organising’ issue. Shortly after this, net-zero legislation was passed for public services as major emitters, meaning all large UNISON employers were supposed to plan for changes towards decarbonisation. Recognising this as a potentially significant change to many of its members’ workplace conditions, from 2018 UNISON began issuing guidance for its members on councils’ net-zero adaptations. Members take action on a variety of issues and demands, such as systematic energy saving at Greater Ormond Hospital[88] and members from the Environmental Agency office collaborating with PCS members to run a cross-union committee looking at climate issues,[89] all supported as part of UNISON’s green reps network. In 2022, these activities led to the union’s rule change formalising a dedicated branch environmental officer, allowing more granular focus on regional networks and activity. Coming into the Year of Trade Union Climate Action (and UNISON’s own Year of Green Activity[90]), UNISON used this opportunity to bring all its climate activity together into a new unifying structure - ‘Green UNISON’, with the aim to enable ongoing activity and raise greater awareness across all of the union’s membership.

While much of this organising has significant scope for further development, UNISON is the only one of the major unions with sustained, long-term environmental structures to support its member organising, and now has a large number of green reps and training courses. To some degree, this is unsurprising, since unlike UNITE or GMB, it does not represent a significant number of workers in carbon-heavy industries.

5e. GMB

Another massive cross-sector union, GMB’s institutional history on the right of the labour movement is partially linked to a very narrow view of its members' interests. Representing a significant number of oil and gas workers with this approach has meant the union’s structures have been consistently hostile to climate action. This is demonstrated at the highest level by general secretary Gary Smith’s consistently hostile public statements. Despite this, GMB has taken opportunities to represent workers in green industries, such as workers at SeAH the wind turbine manufacturer who joined GMB and took strike action in late 2025.[91] However, in some areas this sectoral focus has also meant GMB has led the way in organising important but difficult workplaces, such as in ASDA[92] and Amazon.[93] These examples demonstrated a willingness to proactively resource union campaigns based on political priorities, particularly in an effort to show the viability of an unusual approach. Lessons from this approach would be valuable to apply to worker-climate efforts by unions. While the official structures of GMB are hostile to transition politics, this is far from the case for many of its members, with some forming GMB for a Green New Deal in 2020.[94] This small member group, active from 2020-2025, held discussions and policy interventions to demonstrate that their union could take a wider view of members’ interests and fight for a just transition.

5f. PCS

PCS members have taken an important role in the development of worker-climate organising. The aforementioned collaboration with activist divestment organisations around various museums** *created a precedent for the activity of union members. Subsequently, PCS Green Workplaces structures developed around these activities, supporting green reps and ongoing campaigning. Representing civil service workers puts PCS in a unique position, since transition demands in this sector can have significant ramifications across the rest of the economy. Inspiration for PCS action to impact the wider economy and further political goals can be drawn from its public backing of civil service workers who refuse to work on arms export licenses to Israel.[95] The degree to which these workplaces are likely susceptible to being pushed on transition tends to line up with a few factors. These include the current government’s stances, and the proximity of the department to climate, with DEFRA and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero *being more able to take this activity forward than others. Indeed, as one branch officer put it, ‘good green jobs have to start in DESNZ’.[96]

Adopting a propositional approach, PCS’s ‘National Climate Service’ plan was an offer from members of a potentially transformative state structure which they would be important in enacting. The position of PCS members to make this call was particularly powerful, since they have been able to join the proposed state intervention into their own staffing claims, and the need for more democratic policy development.[97] PCS have also taken action on resisting AI in the workplace, with workers refusing to use AI where possible until a worker-led agreement is in place, a demand which is being invoked in their ongoing industrial action. Workers at DESNZ have noted the lack of carbon budgeting around AI implementation, as well as the use of this technology to commit genocide in Palestine.[98] Much of this work has appeared since the period covered by this report, and is ongoing.

5g. RMT and ASLEF

Exploring the major transport unions, we find a different approach to the climate movement. As the unions of public transport, RMT and ASLEF often position themselves as a part of the solution to the net zero transition. At COP26 they pushed for greater investment in their industry to achieve net zero, as an industry which can clearly argue for its own expansion as the goal when pursuing a just transition. The argument for this expansion is fair, since public transport can serve as the means to push people away from cars, lorries and planes, and reduce individual and freight-based CO2 emissions. However, beyond transport it is important to note that RMT represent offshore energy workers including those in the oil and gas industry. While always looking to protect their workers, they are not short-sighted: they argue for the expansion for offshore wind, and to provide avenues to allow oil and gas workers to transition their skills to offshore wind instead of losing their jobs. In summary, RMT and ASLEF are able to push for upgrades and electrification, with the clear understanding that any transition requires greater investment in public transport, giving them a clear position within a worker-climate movement.

5h. FBU

In contrast, smaller, sectorally specific unions which confront the direct effects of climate change tend to have lots of scope to take on ambitious transition policies at various levels. One of the clearest examples of this is the FBU, who must respond to the increasing fires and floods which are effects of extreme weather in Britain. Since passing their motion on climate change in 2007, the FBU has been at the forefront of putting the material risks onto the political agenda of the workers’ movement, including being the key speaker on LGND’s successful motion to the Labour Party conference in 2019,[99] and producing the ‘Firefighters Manifesto’ in 2023.[100] As workers often on the front line of climate related emergencies, they responded to the heatwave in summer 2025 with a call to tax fossil fuel polluters to help support underfunded emergency response services.[101] This is an even more stark issue for flooding, since they are sent to respond to floods, but do not receive proper training, equipment, and staffing, leading them to push for their service to have a ‘statutory duty’ around the issue.[102]

5i. NEU and UCU

Across the education unions, support for radical action on climate is relatively strong, both across membership and to some degree the structures of both the NEU and UCU. The proximity in both unions to young people facing a high degree of climate distress, most acutely in NEU, likely exacerbates the urgency of action. Within schools, there is a balance of focus between curriculum change, with its long-term effect on the understanding of an upcoming generation, and more immediate material demands such as retrofitting the many inadequately built, crumbling school buildings to a high standard. While the latter demand has not yet been included in any bargaining claims, as previously mentioned the updated NEU Green Reps training includes scenarios of bargaining on retrofitting. Similarly, UCU’s climate structures and policies are relatively strong, drawing on their academic membership base to inform their approach towards relevant climate change issues. However, they demonstrate an interesting case, as many departments within universities are functionally reliant on their organisational and financial ties to the fossil fuel industry. Nevertheless, the unique position of universities and local governments as mass employers and ‘anchor institutions’ gives these trade unionists a greater potential influence over the economy, as highlighted in the TUC’s Greener Workplaces Toolkit.[103]

5j. BFAWU

Though relatively small at 25,000 members, the BFAWU has had an outsized involvement in the worker-climate movement. With many members facing high temperatures in workplaces such as bakeries and food factories, they have led on fights around workplace temperatures, including securing adaptations as mentioned in section 3h. This experience on workplace heat, particularly through the union’s 2019 ‘Cool It Campaign’,[104] led them to be both an inspiration for, and close collaborator with the Heat Strike campaign. The union has also taken an innovative approach towards representation, formally incorporating climate issues initially through a combined Safety, Health and Environment rep role which has built towards the Green rep role in place today.[105]

5k. Equity

While the performers and entertainers who make up Equity may not seem obviously tied to the climate crisis, their member-led group ‘Equity for a Green New Deal’ has been active since 2022.[106] These members have taken up transition issues in their sector, with some more universal methods such as pension divestment, and some sector specific efforts such as their best-practice ‘Theatre Green Book’[107] and infrastructure for their ‘Green Riders’ scheme. This latter initiative works with the specific ability of some entertainment workers to negotiate with specific productions, to push for changes to their practices along various climate-focused angles.[108] As already discussed in section 3l, Equity for a GND was successful in divesting the union's pension fund.

5l. Shifting our unions

Making profound change, whether in unions or beyond, requires careful assessment of opportunities, challenges, and possibilities. As has been shown in this survey of some British unions, there are various relevant factors to consider, such as industrial composition, organisational history, and tactical repertoire. However, none of these strictly determine how a union will end up approaching transition politics, with different members and structures choosing how to interpret and respond to these factors. These are organisations which can and should be changed by members, which requires a careful understanding of the terrain they seek to contest.

6. Training, Education and Resources

6a. Developing understanding

As individual attempts at worker-climate action take place, an essential task is also to develop a critical understanding of these efforts and their context. Not only do trade unions frame climate change as an issue in different ways, they also disseminate this knowledge to members in different ways, from hosting training sessions and discussions, to creating resources. How unions train representatives on climate change is therefore as varied as their demands for climate action.

6b. Green reps courses

Looking at how green reps courses have been taught historically, the emphasis has often been on teaching union members about the core facts such as sea level rises, meteorological shifts, and ecological crisis. While these are important motivating factors for transition organising, presenting people with crushing realities without an emphasis on ‘what is to be done’ is often demobilising. As the climate movement grew over the 2010s, an ethos of ‘raising awareness’ had successfully reached many people, so that most understood the existential threat without having heard a compelling case for how an existential solution might be built. In response, recent changes have taken place within the TUC and NEU’s revamped green reps training to instead cover the basics of workplace organising and negotiation, then cover some facts about climate change, then synthesise these with green bargaining roleplay.

This frontloading of key organising skills is also a response to the lack of institutional structures successfully skilling-up of trade union members, meaning even those who have chosen to take on rep responsibilities may benefit from being taught the basics of deep, militant workplace organising. Some external organisations also run trainings which deepen workers’ organising approaches, along with some focus on climate, such as Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung’s ‘Organising for Power’ course[109] or the TUC’s course which connects anti-far right efforts with support for net zero.[110] Nevertheless, trade unionists have reported recent challenges in organising in the context of growing climate denial and anti-net zero politics within some parts of the working class. Whilst awareness raising brings the challenges above, a universal acceptance among members of the reality of the climate crisis can no longer be taken for granted, and the fight against the far right is a critical part of tackling climate misinformation.

6c. Global Labour Institute discussions

In terms of union structures facilitating discussion among members, an interesting example is the sessions held by UNITE’s CPPT (Chemical Processes, Pharmaceuticals and Textiles) section. For several years, this NISC (National Industrial Sector Committee) has worked with the Global Labour Institute to survey the industrial concerns being fed towards the sectoral convenors, then facilitate workshops for these high-level lay members to discuss key issues on the day before their annual NISC meetings. This process meant that in a carbon-heavy sector, transition issues were often deeply considered and fed into upcoming decisions about the future of the sector. A notable aspect about this example is that rather than running for the whole union, this facilitation was run for a singular NISC, based on the specific initiative and relationships of a few individuals, particularly the structure’s national officer.[111] This meant other UNITE members involved in worker-climate activity have little awareness of this worthwhile structure. Greater awareness could spread a demand for similar sessions across the union and beyond.

6d. Union resources

Mentioned throughout this report are a wide variety of resources created to inform and support worker transition activity. Unions creating these resources directly, such as UCU’s ‘Future We Want’ wallchart,[112] can be a widely accessible way of spreading awareness of the specifics of transition in their sector. Additionally, both TUC and TUC Cymru used their capacity to create ‘Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition’ guides, beginning with TUC Cymru in 2021,[113] then followed by the TUC in 2024.[114] These cover a range of examples and approaches, even providing template organising tools, such as staff surveys and a model green claim. Similarly, the STUC has produced a ‘Climate and Just Transition’ training which covers core issues and examples.[115] These can be further supplemented by external organisations which provide resources to cover these topics in more depth or from a specific angle, such as Tipping Point UK’s Climate Justice Education programme,[116] which compiles a wealth of video and written resources on worker-climate issues.

6e. Other resources

In other contexts, resources are created with more varied aims, such as the ‘Our Power’ report[117] or the Worker-Climate Project’s own Movement Assessment. As part of the wider ‘Offshore’ project, the ‘Our Power’ report compiled findings from surveys and testimonies from workers into a publicly accessible document. This was used to build public and political support around their specific campaigning demands, such as the Skills Passport mentioned throughout the report. For the Movement Assessment, we responded to the difficulty for those engaged in worker-climate organising taking on a singular approach to understand who they were organising alongside, and how they could learn from each other. By creating a range of resources (this report, the Worker Transition Database, our Groups Index) we aim to not only help workers fighting around transition to connect with each other, but also to build a consciousness of themselves as part of a cohered wider movement.

6f. Developing resources and organising

In the last decade, the trade union movement has developed a much wider set of training and educational materials on climate than existed previously. These have also moved beyond general awareness-raising about the causes and impacts of climate change, to include a greater focus on green bargaining, worker-climate organising, and political demands. They have also come to have a greater focus on the threat of far right climate denialism and Reform’s anti-net zero agenda. There is a feedback loop between training, publications and practical organising: better resources are produced as a response to organising, and in turn can inform and spark further organising.

7. Place-Based Organising

7a. Global and local

While the structures of and struggles against capitalism and the climate crisis are global, they are experienced through the specifics of the places in which people live and work. Acknowledging details in place-based dynamics is essential for understanding the complexity of our movement. The first half of this section will rely heavily on the Worker Climate Project’s previous work in coordinating ‘Trades Council Roundtables’, with the second half touching on specifics in Wales and Scotland. This section does not seek to be a systematic overview of how local dynamics operate across Britain, but instead a sample of these important regional differences which could be considered in many other cases.

7b. Trades Councils

Near the beginning of 2025, due to trades councils (TCs) activity coming up repeatedly in our activist interviews, the WCP hosted a series of roundtables bringing together representatives from across eight trades councils active on transition from across England and Scotland. All eight of these trades councils (Aberdeen, Blackburn, Blackpool, Coventry, Dundee, Moray, Sheffield, Wakefield) discussed how they were using this structure, a place-based council which any local trade union branch is encouraged to affiliate to for industrial and political coordination, to organise towards transition. As locally specific labour movement structures which bring together representatives from across unions and sectors, trades councils have the potential for a significant role in planning locally for transition. The potential to coordinate action, unique overview of industry, and connection with the local community makes trades councils an important player in cohering an alternative to the far right and its climate denial politics, both within the community and inside unions.

7c. Trades Councils and climate groups

Across these trades councils, various efforts have been taken in collaboration with local climate groups, such as Moray TC working with Moray Climate Action Network to co-host film screenings[118], and Sheffield TC hosting a day-school exploring jobs and the economy in a transition, alongside South Yorkshire Climate Alliance[119]. In some cases, these relationships are more formalised, such as the formation of Just Transition Wakefield as already outlined; indeed, Coventry TC members’ involvement in the Rolls Royce workshops has led to discussions about forming a sustained ‘Just Transition Network Coventry’ to focus on green bargaining[120]. Aligned with the climate movement, COP26 in 2021 also spurred a range of activity, such as joint demonstrations; Dundee TC used the opportunity to develop a ‘Four Point Policy’ calling for mass retrofit, free public transport, and nationalisation of key industries[121].

7d. Trades Councils and government

Trades councils often focus on finding points of intervention in local government. In Dundee, the TC successfully campaigned for their council to adopt the ‘Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty’ in 2024, and have since been part of the ‘Back our Buses’ campaign in Dundee to push for publicly-owned, sustainable travel[122]. Also, as previously mentioned, Just Transition Wakefield is often engaged with local council committees around ongoing transition issues. In these efforts to push on local government, organisers highlight that even when local councils are relatively sympathetic, cuts and budget constraints often mean that winning practical policy developments is challenging.[123] Collaboration with wider bodies such as TUC and STUC enables the link between local transition activity and wider issues. In Moray, the trades council sent motions to the STUC pressing for greater consideration of trades councils as part of a wider transition strategy.[124] In Aberdeen, following a deadly landslide killing several rail workers, the trades council collaborated with the STUC to produce the ‘Climate Hazards and Resilience in the Workplace’ resource.[125]

7e. A range of demands

Importantly, surveying these trades councils highlights the complex range of issues which can be viewed as part of a just transition when taking a local focus. Sometimes these issues are very clearly linked - such as in Blackpool TC’s significant support for the Preston New Road anti-fracking struggles, from protesting at the prison where activists were threatened with long sentences, to later creating a pamphlet[126] on the local climate jobs they wanted in place of fracking. Similarly looking at local energy issues, both Wakefield and Sheffield TCs have been involved in the ‘Stop Burning Trees’ coalition against the polluting site of Drax powerplant.[127] However, other less typical issues have been taken up, such as Coventry TC being involved in staff-student solidarity, pushing for a ‘green workload claim’, pointing to the need for a less burdensome workload to allow workers to have time to act on the University’s climate schemes.[128] Sheffield TC highlights that a just transition must also be for those who are impoverished by our current economy, drawing the link between transition and the long-running deep organising among low-paid workers taken by the ‘Sheffield Needs a Payrise’ initiative.[129] Looking at the potential for adaptation to worsening climatic conditions, Aberdeen TC pointed to organising in the wake of a disastrous 2023 storm which displaced many, with trades council members involved in preparing village halls to become community hubs in cases of future extreme weather.[130]

7f. Wales

In 2019, the Senedd was the first parliament to declare a climate emergency, with the Welsh government creating their own emissions targets. While rhetorically ambitious, these devolved governmental structures are disempowered through the limited funding settlement with the British government.[131] In response to this context and to the COVID-19 pandemic, TUC Cymru (Wales TUC) launched the report and campaign ‘A green recovery and a just transition’. This campaign built alongside their ‘Green Workplaces Network’ of green reps coordinating their activity and holding a diversity of discussions from 2021-23.[132]

7g. Collaborative approaches in Wales

The Green Workplaces Network built on a basis of grassroots worker-climate activity in Wales, such as the early UNITE rep initiative in 2008 at Magor brewery, which collaboratively looked for water and energy saving opportunities with the employer.[133] In a similar example of collaborative activity in early 2020, Prospect members at the Intellectual Property Office in Newport identified the climate crisis as one of their key issues. They organised to represent the union on the employers’ ‘Green Team’ to implement sustainability changes around their office.[134] Both of these examples are of an unusually proactive employer allowing trade unions to have some agency in green workplace changes. These situations present opportunities for material gains, as well as building confidence and precedence for a workers' role in climate issues. However, there is a necessity to develop consciousness beyond a model of working in partnership with the employer, both to avoid greenwashing and to enable future transition changes which would require employer confrontation. The UCU Cardiff example discussed in section 3m is a case of Welsh trade union members building from some collaboration to push further on an employer.

7h. Port Talbot

A key Welsh industrial struggle over the last few years has taken place over proposed job losses in steel production at Port Talbot. As a centrepiece of UNITE’s national ‘Fight for Steel Campaign’,[135] Port Talbot steelworkers collaborated with the national union in developing the proposal ‘A Workers Plan for Port Talbot’. Alongside immediate steps for building new electric arc furnaces and scrap steel processing, the plan also highlights broader industrial demands. These include public investment and ownership stake in revitalising the steel industry, changing public procurement practices to use domestically produced steel, and putting Port Talbot at the centre of domestic wind energy manufacturing.[136] Following the closing of the blast furnace in 2024, government investment has been promised for a new electric arc furnace, however this will not be operational until late 2028.[137] So, while this worker-planning had some limited success in ensuring future state investment, there has not been a transition process for workers facing job losses. With greener steel production being significantly less labour intensive, and Port Talbot’s link to the Celtic ‘Freeport’, a special zone in which trade unions have less power, high quality re-employment is far from certain.[138] While many new jobs and processes are required for a full green steel industrial supply chain, this can only be achieved through more comprehensive worker-led planning across the economy.[139]

7i. Scotland

In Scotland, several factors change the dynamics of worker-climate organising, primarily the history of the SNP’s relative willingness to make minor gestures towards transition politics, alongside North Sea oil extraction and refining. While Scottish activists are often justifiably guarded about others overemphasising how much further these politics have developed, the above conditions have meant activists and related institutions have more quickly developed a more robust transition politics.

7j. Scottish coalition building

When making a comparison between TUC and STUC activity, the Scottish TUC emerges as the much more proactive of the two in terms of supporting the worker-climate movement, particularly around a just transition for offshore oil and gas workers. Between involvement in the ‘Battle for Bifab’ to produce wind farm jackets,[140] bringing trade union engagement to COP26 in Glasgow, hiring its transition staff member in December 2022, and involvement in the ‘Our Power’ campaign,[141] STUC has been consistently active on transition issues. This activity was most significantly institutionalised in 2016, following Friends of the Earth Scotland’s proposal to STUC to come together to form the Just Transition Partnership. A unique organisational form, the JTP was instrumental in the creation of the Scotland government’s Just Transition Commission, alongside other coordination and campaigns. Despite its limitations, the unique structure for transition input has been recognised by unions such as PCS and UNISON, who have called for the establishment of a nationwide Just Transition Commission to expand to the rest of the UK. Efforts within the JTP are now focused on how public ownership can enable transition efforts at local and national levels in Scotland.

Another part of Scotland’s worker-climate infrastructure is the small activist organisation ScotE3, which began as a collaboration between construction workers and climate activists. Aiming to support the development of rank and file transition efforts among Scottish union members, ScotE3 has organised three well-attended conferences, alongside publishing resources such as the website’s blog, publishing articles in a construction workers newsletter, and producing various policy briefings.[142]

7k. Alexander Dennis up to June 2025

Despite some successes in Scotland, the ongoing fight to maintain jobs at the renewable bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis (ADL) serves as a reminder that even green manufacturing jobs which do exist are still far from secure. Workplace bargaining began in 2020, when ADL proposed hundreds of redundancies across its Falkirk and Larbert plants. In response, UNITE and STUC partnered with the plants’ management to lobby the Scottish and UK governments for investment in zero-emission transport to save jobs. Initially, this bargaining was successful, with the Scottish Government introducing the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (SULEB) in 2021. The scheme committed millions in funding to help bus operators order hundreds of UK-built electric buses from ADL, which temporarily stabilised the workforce. Though UNITE continued its collective bargaining by organising strikes for better pay between 2023 and 2024 (which were successful), in June 2025, ADL announced proposals to close all its Scottish plants and move all manufacturing to its Scarborough plant in England, putting approximately 400 Scottish jobs at risk.

7l. Alexander Dennis since June 2025

In response, UNITE, ADL, and the Scottish Government agreed on a government-backed furlough scheme whereby workers would be paid furlough while awaiting the outcome of more government funding for zero-emission buses. However, though the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund (ScotZEB3) provided £45 million for 334 new electric buses, only 123 were allocated to ADL while, controversially, 166 were allocated to the Chinese company Yutong.[143] As a result, the ScotZEB3 allocation wasn’t enough to sustain full operations in Scotland. On the 31st March 2026, ADL announced it would permanently close its Falkirk plant and downgrade its Larbert site, putting 115 green jobs at risk of redundancy. In September 2026, the announcement that the Scottish government would not honour a promise of furlough for these workers showed the gap between radical rhetoric and lack of action.[144]

7m. Organising where we are

Place-based organising offers a number of benefits. It can mobilise communities, operating beyond the limitations of a single workplace but still on a scale that connects with people. Trades Councils in particular derive autonomy from sitting outside of traditional national and sectoral structures within the trade union bureaucracy. There are some real successes to point to. However, the success of place-based organising is contingent on the local political conditions, economic landscape, and what powers are available to devolved and local government bodies. While there are opportunities to work through bodies like the Sennedd and Scottish Parliament, and the new Mayoral Combined Authorities, the British state otherwise remains highly centralised and local authorities are limited by austerity and restrictions on their powers. We would like to see more ambitious efforts at place-based worker-climate organising, centred on propositional planning where workers and communities can craft a vision for their local area that puts working people and the planet first.

8. Relationship to the State

8a. The State

As the historical structure which has stabilised and legalised capital’s domination over labour, workers and trade unionists necessarily take a variety of approaches to the state. This section will give a survey of some of these approaches.

8b. The Labour Party

As mentioned in the introduction, many British trade unions have historically been affiliated with the Labour Party. Particularly for the big general unions (UNITE, UNISON, GMB) which have huge financial and structural power, their influence on the party’s policy and governance has been a significant way of relating to state power. The party’s ‘Clause V’ meetings have historically given trade union leaders significant power to decide which policies are finalised into election manifestos.[145] In 2019, although huge support from union members led to 11 of 12 affiliated unions backing LGND’s Green New Deal motion, leaders of the big unions were wary of many of the necessarily sweeping changes this motion committed them to. This wariness likely played a significant role in the Clause V meeting where policies were moderated into the watered-down ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ policy offering[146] which was launched as part of the 2019 manifesto. In the wake of Labour’s 2019 defeat, the reactionary turn in the party spearheaded by Starmer’s leadership led to the BFAWU disaffiliating in 2021,[147] and UNITE cutting its party funding by £580,000 (40%) due to the Labour government’s treatment of the Birmingham bin strikers.[148] Nonetheless, UNITE remains affiliated and, alongside GMB, exerted political pressure to avoid Ed Miliband’s appointment as Burnham’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, claiming that even Miliband’s moderately ambitious climate focus is a threat to their members.[149]

8c. Trade Union lobbying

Beyond their direct links with the Labour Party, most unions and the TUC have ongoing institutionalised lobbying efforts. These operations tackle a variety of issues which the unions see as relevant to their members’ interests, including climate and transition. For example, the TUC has successfully won the creation of the Office for Clean Energy Jobs in the Department for Energy Security and Net-Zero,[150] which claims to be developing jobs plans for all the eight priority industrial sectors, and developing a fair worker charter to mandate that workers work to collectively bargained terms and conditions across a broad range of clean energy sectors. This is in addition to the similar, more detailed direct collaboration on the Warm Homes Plan.[151] UNISON has green lobbying currently focused on: legal rights for green reps; maximum working temperatures; and, in collaboration with Friends of the Earth, sustainable supply chains.[152] Even at their most successful, changes won through lobbying cannot be a replacement for worker organising. However, they can give openings and enable some organising to take place, with discussions currently taking place throughout the labour movement on how the cautious changes in the Employment Rights Act 2025[153] might enable grassroots action. Were a government to recognise the green rep role, this would not solve the many challenges which our movement needs to solve, but could give some precious paid time and legal protections for some to put towards these problems in their workplace.

8d. Coalitional lobbying

For some cross-union coalitions involved in the worker-climate movement, lobbying is one of their core strategies. Safe Landing, for example, who advocate for secure employment and sustainability in the aviation industry, regularly lobby the government in pursuit of net zero emissions through Workers’ Assemblies and MP briefings. Supported by UNITE, Prospect and BALPA, Safe Landing uses these events to offer progressive policy proposals, which they actively present to politicians, industry, the media, and unions. Also, TUCAN has been part of lobbying at both national government[154] and London mayoral[155] levels. Another example of a cross-movement coalition which uses lobbying as a core organisational strategy is the Just Transition Partnership, lobbying through the Just Transition Commission since 2018. After launching their 2021 Manifesto, the JTP has continued its lobbying efforts to promote its policy recommendations to achieve a sustainable and just future for Scotland. The work around the ‘Offshore’ report and demands, outlined earlier, was also followed by collaborative lobbying around the Skills Passport, with briefings to MSPs enabling policy debate and legislative change in the Scottish Parliament.

8e. International lobbying

As a result of our increasingly globalised society, unions also lobby at international governance spaces, in the form of participating in delegations. For example, the NEU, Community and UNISON have sent representatives to promote UK trade union demands at the annual United Nations climate conferences (such as COP28). Another international lobbying example is the TUCAN lobby at the 2019 World Health Organisation Air Quality Conference, which included the organisation of a demonstration outside the event space to raise media attention.

8f. Industrial action as state confrontation

The state’s influence is felt across all of the British economy, whether in full or partial ownership, subsidisation, or legal systems which maintain and guarantee private industry. Therefore, whenever industrial action is taken, it is not only a confrontation with a particular employer, but also with the state. The parameters of when and which kinds of industrial action can legally be taken are confined by draconian anti-trade union legislation - as typified by the previously discussed clause of the 1992 Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act, which limits the remit of strike action to ‘pay and conditions’.

8g. Historical industrial state confrontations

On the scale of national action, this confrontation with the state is often clarified. Historically, we can look back to the 1926 general strike, where the Conservative government planned and implemented emergency strike breaking mechanisms, or to 1974 when the NUM’s militancy led to Edward Heath calling, and losing, an election over the question of ‘who governs Britain?’[156]

This confrontation set the stage for Thatcher’s battle with the unions, in which the Prime Minister and union leaders like Scargill fought over mutually incompatible visions of the British economy. More recently, in 2022’s so-called ‘Hot Strike Summer’,[157] many of the most prominent unions involved in the strikewave made demands facing the public sector, such as the railway workers, postal workers, and teachers. This meant the strikewave ultimately became a political challenge to the Conservative government, which the labour movement was not equipped to win.

8h. Industrial transition demands on the state

For a range of industrial disputes which have included transition demands, calls for state intervention have been made, with some going as far as arguing the need for an industry to be taken into public ownership. In some sectors, this would mean a reversal of fairly recent privatisations, such as the RMT calling for ‘all elements of the railway to be taken into public ownership’[158] and the CWU’s continuous campaigning for Royal Mail to be renationalised.[159] For calls in heavy manufacturing, such as Grangemouth workers calling for the government to take a ‘transitional stake’** **and Port Talbot workers calling for the steel supply chain to be publicly owned and planned, fulfilling all these nationalisations would constitute a more explicit form of state planning than has been articulated in recent history. However, state planning is always present, with the government absorbing the costs and losses of private firms, perhaps most notoriously in the case of banks and private train operators, while effectively guaranteeing shareholder profits. Perhaps less visible are the ways in which North Sea extraction is similarly planned and subsidised. Successive governments have refused to charge drilling companies during operation for the costs of rig decommissioning, leaving the state with an approximate £2 billion annual burden for 500 wells currently overdue for decommissioning, with the potentially ballooning cost of another 1700 due in the next few years.[160] In contrast to this norm of the state spending all its time and resources bailing out reckless and unaccountable private sector actors, worker-climate demands for public ownership recognise that removing private profit from industrial planning is an essential step for decarbonising our economy.

Whilst many transition demands necessitate action only possible through government action, workers can still design and lead on these visions and their implementation, as with the Scottish offshore workers’ Skills Passport. Unions which affiliate to the Labour Party must be willing to propose their plans and expect them to be implemented - or be willing to use their bargaining power to force government action.

8i. The state and struggle

Given the complexity of the question of trade unions’ relationship with the state, this section is necessarily limited in the conclusions it offers. The controversial links between some unions and the Labour Party offer limited policy gains. Similarly, more conventional lobbying has mobilised trade unions’ significant budgets, staffing, and claims to represent large numbers of workers, to apply pressure on the government towards some transition changes. While legislative and policy changes can create some space and opportunities for organising, they cannot in themselves empower organised workers to push beyond the current order towards a transition away from fossil fuels guided by ecosocialist principles. To achieve this requires building political forms which can bring growing power on the shopfloor together with many other political struggles, to use and transform state power for our transition.

Notes

[1]: ‘E47-48: Green Bans’. Working Class History. 2020. https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e47-48-green-bans/

[2]: ‘14 Years after the Battle of Seattle, Movements Call to #EndWTO’. *Indigenous Environmental Network. *2013. https://www.ienearth.org/14-years-after-the-battle-of-seattle-movements-call-to-endwto/

[3]: ‘Staff occupy Isle of Wight wind turbine plant in protest against closure’. The Guardian. 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/jul/21/wind-turbine-factory-occupation

[4]: ‘One Million Climate Jobs: Tackling the Environmental and Economic Crisis’. CACCTU. 2014. https://www.cacctu.org.uk/climate_jobs_2014

[5]: ‘Newsletters’. Greener Jobs Alliance. Various dates. https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/news/

[6]: ‘Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre TUC’. The Worker-Climate Project. https://workerclimate.org/blackpool-tuc

[7]: ‘Just Transition Wakefield.’ Just Transition Wakefield. https://justtransitionwakefield.org.uk/

[8]: ‘Culture workers against big oil: the importance of labor education in fighting the climate crisis’. Environmental Education Research. 2013. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/13504622.2023.2273792

[9]: ‘Conference Motion 2019’. Labour for a Green New Deal*. *2019. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bySBLkuHqI7OOP5r9OZq0EddTV046MJMk5ekYa396vE/edit?tab=t.0

[10]: ‘TUCAN Campaigns’. Greener Jobs Alliance. https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/tucan-campaigns/

[11]: ‘Focus on why climate change is a union issue’. PCS. https://www.pcs.org.uk/campaigns/focus-why-climate-change-trade-union-issue/focus-why-climate-change-union-issue

[12]: ‘“Climate change action: organising to win”, by Adam Lincoln’. Education International. 2019. https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/22914:climate-change-action-organising-to-win-by-adam-lincoln

[13]: ‘What happened at our COP26 Just Transition Hub?’ Friends of the Earth Scotland. 2021. https://foe.scot/what-happened-at-our-cop26-just-transition-hub

[14]: ‘Glasgow bin strike supported by COP26 climate activists in show of solidarity.’ Daily Record. 2021. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/glasgow-bin-strike-supported-cop26-25368870

[15]: ‘Newsletter May/June 2021’. Greener Jobs Alliance. 2021. https://www.greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/GJA-Newsletter-32-May-June2021-FINAL-13-May.pdf

[16]: ‘UNISON report: Getting to net zero in UK public services’. UNISON. 2022. https://unison.org.uk/issue/unison-report-getting-net-zero-uk-public-services.

[17]: ‘Year of Trade Union Climate Action’. TUC. 2026. https://www.tuc.org.uk/year-trade-union-climate-action

[18]: ‘Can Extinction Rebellion Survive?’ *Dissent. *2020. https://dissentmagazine.org/article/can-extinction-rebellion-survive

[19]: ‘Solidarity with global climate strikes’. UCU. 2019. https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10120/Solidarity-with-global-climate-strikes

[20]: ‘Climate strike 20 September - adults to join youth strikers across the world’. CACCTU. 2019. https://www.cacctu.org.uk/climate_strike_20_september

[21]: ‘Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre TUC’. The Worker-Climate Project. https://workerclimate.org/blackpool-tuc

[22]: ‘There is an alternative to fracking: Building a climate jobs plan for Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre’. Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre Trades Council. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J58_FzVtRFtPwojSmydk7a26xO0v0aWy/

[23]: ‘Wakefield TUC’. The Worker-Climate Project. https://workerclimate.org/wakefield-tuc

[24]: ‘About’. Just Transition Wakefield. 2026. https://justtransitionwakefield.org.uk/about/

[25]: ‘Founding Statement on Just Transition’. Just Transition Partnership. https://www.jtp.scot/joint-statement-on-just-transition/

[26]: ‘Ten years of an alliance for just transition: Cultivating common ground’. 2026. https://scottishleftreview.scot/10-years-of-an-alliance-for-just-transition-cultivating-common-ground/

[27]: ‘COP26 Coalition’. Climate Justice Coalition. 2019. https://climatejustice.uk/cop26-coalition-membership/

[28]: ‘Who we are’. Climate Justice Coalition. https://climatejustice.uk/who-we-are/

[29]: ‘Offshore: Oil and gas workers’ views on industry conditions and the energy transition’. Platform, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. 2020. https://platformlondon.org/resource/offshore-oil-and-gas-workers-views/

[30]: ‘North Sea Just Transition’. Platform. https://platformlondon.org/project/energy-justice/

[31]: ‘Skills passports: An essential part of a fair transition’. IPPR. 2025. https://www.ippr.org/articles/skills-passports-fair-transition

[32]: ‘University of Liverpool Joint Trade Unions and Guild of Students Green New Deal Bargaining Claim’. 2022. https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/13211/Case-study-Liverpool-UCU-branch-GND-bargaining-claim/pdf/UoL_GND_bargaining_claim_Sep22.pdf

[33]: ‘Support GKN Autoworkers Just Transition Struggle’. Gofundme. 2024. https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-gkn-autoworkers-just-transition-struggle

[34]: ‘National Climate and Biodiversity Service’. PCS. 2024. https://www.mypcs.pcs.org.uk/s/article/National-Climate-and-Biodiversity-Service

[35]: ‘Vauxhall – Ellesmere Port Plant’. *Unite Environment Quarterly. *2022 (5). https://learnwithunite.org/environment/unite-environment-quarterly

[36]: ‘Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992’. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/52/section/178/enacted?view=plain

[37]: ‘UNITE Health and Safety Guide’. UNITE. 2023. https://resources.unitetheunion.org/unite-at-work-bargaining-support/health-and-safety

[38]: ‘Making schools sustainable’. NEU. https://neu.org.uk/advice/health-and-safety/workplace-conditions/making-schools-sustainable

[39]: ‘News in Brief’. *TUCAN Newsletter. *2019 (1). https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/tucan-newsletters/

[40]: ‘Trade Union Clean Air Network Charter’. 2019. https://www.greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GJA-TU-Clean-Air-Charter-EMAIL.pdf

[41]: ‘Promoting good air pollution practice’. *TUCAN Newsletter. *2026 (9). https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/tucan-newsletters/

[42]: ‘Heat Strike Now’. Heat Strike. 2025. https://heatstrike.uk/

[43]: ‘Newsletter 73’. *Greener Jobs Alliance. *2025. https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/news/

[44]: ‘Employment Rights Act 1996’. *The National Archives. *2026. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/44

[45]: ‘Arriva North London drivers win ground breaking “hot bus” victory’. UNITE*. *2026. https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2026/september/arriva-north-london-drivers-win-ground-breaking-hot-bus-victory

[46]: ‘Joint Union Heatwave Protocol’. National Education Union.* *2023. https://neu.org.uk/latest/library/joint-union-heatwave-protocol

[47]: Robbie Woodland, BFAWU, speaking at Workers Planet event in Brighton, United Kingdom. 2026.

[48]: ‘Green Reps and Environmental Officers’. National Education Union.* *2025. https://events.neu.org.uk/event?topic=ACT&id=NTPGERPUK031025#MEMBER.EVENT.INTRO

[49]: ‘Recommendations for the government's Warm Homes retrofit strategy’. Trade Union Congress. 2024. https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/recommendations-governments-warm-homes-retrofit-strategy

[50]: ‘British Museum’s BP sponsorship deal ‘astonishingly out of touch’’. *The Guardian. *2023. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/dec/19/british-museum-bp-sponsorship-deal-astonishingly-out-of-touch

[51]: ‘BP sponsorship of Royal Opera House ends after 33 years’. *The Guardian. *2023. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jan/25/bp-sponsorship-of-royal-opera-house-ends-after-33-years

[52]: ‘MU Statement on Musicians Wishing to Boycott The Great Escape Festival 2024’. Musicians Union*. *2024. https://musiciansunion.org.uk/news/mu-statement-on-musicians-wishing-to-boycott-the-great-escape-festival-2024

[53]: ‘Exploring Green Pension Investments as the Most Powerful Thing You Can Do to Protect The Planet’. Musicians Union. 2021. https://musiciansunion.org.uk/news/exploring-green-pension-investments-as-the-most-powerful-thing-you-can-do-to-protect-the-planet

[54]: ‘UNISON unanimously votes for divestment of pension funds’. CACCTU.* *2017. https://www.cacctu.org.uk/node/2168

[55]: ‘Divesting the Greater Manchester Pension Fund from Fossil Fuels and Arms Sales’. Manchester City Council. 2019. https://democracy.manchester.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=15369

[56]: ‘Our LGPS divestment campaign continues!’. UNISON. 2021. https://unison.org.uk/news/2021/12/our-lgps-divestment-campaign-continues

[57]: ‘Pensions divestment in solidarity with Palestine’. UNISON. 2026. https://unison.org.uk/news/2026/06/pensions-divestment-solidarity-palestine

[58]: ‘Equity members call on Chancellor to unlock green investment as Equity Pension Scheme acts on climate change’. Equity.* *2024. https://www.equity.org.uk/news/2024/equity-members-call-on-chancellor-to-unlock-green-investment-as-equity-pension-scheme-acts-on-climate-change

[59]: ‘BP sponsorship of Royal Opera House ends after 33 years’. *The Guardian. *2023. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jan/25/bp-sponsorship-of-royal-opera-house-ends-after-33-years

[60]: ‘UCU environment rep shows the way to a greener future at Cardiff University’. *Trade Union Congress. *2020. https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/wales/ucu-environment-rep-shows-way-greener-future-cardiff-university

[61]: ‘Working for Climate Justice’. *Institute of Employment Rights. *2023. https://ccccjustice.org/publications/

[62]: ‘Pushing for a Green New Deal at Rolls Royce’. *Trade Union Congress. *2021. https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/pushing-green-new-deal-rolls-royce

[63]: ‘Rolls-Royce Barnoldswick: Deal with Unite union secures plant's future’. BBC. 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-59260560

[64]: ‘The Fight for Steel’. UNITE. 2026. https://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/the-fight-for-steel

[65]: ‘Workers Seize the Shipyard That Built the Titanic, Plan to Make Renewable Energy There’. Vice. 2019. https://www.vice.com/en/article/workers-seize-the-shipyard-that-built-the-titanic-to-make-renewable-energy/

[66]: ‘The Fight to Keep Grangemouth Working’. *Scottish Left Review. *2026. https://scottishleftreview.scot/the-fight-to-keep-grangemouth-working/

[67]: ‘BiFab 'loses out' on 'vital' wind farm contract’. BBC. 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-47478083

[68]: ‘Last UK coal plant closes and successfully redeploys the workforce’. *Trade Union Congress. *2024. https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/last-uk-coal-plant-closes-and-successfully-redeploys-workforce

[69]: ‘Climate & sustainability report 2020/2021’. UCU. 2021. https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11612/UCU-climate--sustainability-report-20202021

[70]: 'Heat Strike Motions from other unions’. Heat Strike*. *2024. https://heatstrike.notion.site/Heat-Strike-Motions-from-other-unions-13cf93289c60819f8677e11d40f40eb4

[71]: ‘Newsletter October 2025’. Greener Jobs Alliance. 2025. https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/news/

[72]: ‘C14 Climate heat emergency’. *Trade Union Congress. *2026. https://congress.tuc.org.uk/c14-climate-heat-emergency/#sthash.NW1mOmIP.dpbs

[73]: ‘Newsletter July 2023’. *Greener Jobs Alliance. *2023. https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/news/

[74]: ‘Just Transition Framework’. UCU*.* 2026. https://www.ucu.org.uk/JustTransitionFramework

[75]: ‘Futureproofing Manufacturing’. *Trade Union Congress. *2026. https://www.tuc.org.uk/futureproofing-manufacturing

[76]: ‘Too Hot, Too Cold’. *Trade Union Congress. *2026. https://reps.tuced.org.uk/too-hot-too-cold/#/page/62a99e6952ca9e0c0b526eff

[77]: ‘Greener Workplaces Toolkit’. *Trade Union Congress. *2024. https://www.tuc.org.uk/resource/greener-workplaces-just-transition

[78]: ‘Health and safety issues in flooded areas’. *Trade Union Congress. *2014. https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/health-and-safety-issues-flooded-areas

[79]: ‘All to Play For’. Trade Union Congress.* *2025. https://events.tuc.org.uk/AllToPlayFor

[80]: ‘Environment Taskforce’. UNITE. 2022. https://learnwithunite.org/environment

[81]: ‘Unite Environment Conference’. UNITE*. *2022. https://learnwithunite.org/environment/environment-news

[82]: ‘Unite Environment Quarterly’. UNITE*. *2022. https://learnwithunite.org/environment/unite-environment-quarterly

[83]: ‘Unite Environment Training’. UNITE.* *2022. https://learnwithunite.org/environment/environmental-training

[84]: ‘Oil and Gas | No ban without a plan’. UNITE. 2026 https://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/oil-and-gas-no-ban-without-a-plan

[85]: ‘Unite: Government must back North Sea oil and gas including Rosebank and Jackdaw’. UNITE*. *2026. https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2026/march/unite-government-must-back-north-sea-oil-and-gas-including-rosebank-and-jackdaw

[86]: ‘Climate Justice for Steel Workers!’. UNITE Grassroots Climate Justice Caucus. 2024. https://actionnetwork.org/events/climate-justice-for-steel-workers

[87]: ‘Unite’s leadership attacks democracy over Palestine’. Unite4Palestine*. *2025. https://www.unite4palestine.co.uk/posts/unite_closes_democracy/

[88]: ‘The Union Effect: greening the workplace’. *Trade Union Congress. *2014. https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/union-effect-greening-workplace

[89]: ‘Cutting carbon, growing skills – green skills for a just transition’. Trade Union Congress. 2020. https://www.unionlearn.org.uk/publications/cutting-carbon-growing-skills-green-skills-just-transition

[90]: ‘Year of Green Activity’. UNISON. 2026. https://unison.org.uk/key-issues/year-of-green-activity

[91]: ‘Teesside wind workers to strike over 'pitiful' pay’. GMB. 2025. https://www.gmb.org.uk/news/teesside-wind-workers-to-striker-over-pitiful-pay

[92]: ‘Equal Pay - ASDA Pockets the Difference’. GMB. 2025. https://www.gmb.org.uk/campaigns/equal-pay-asda-pockets-the-difference/

[93]: ‘Make Work Better in Amazon’. GMB. 2026. https://www.gmb.org.uk/amazon

[94]: ‘We’ve launched GMB for a Green New Deal to save jobs and the planet’. LabourList. 2020. https://labourlist.org/2020/10/weve-launched-gmb-for-a-green-new-deal-to-save-jobs-and-the-planet/

[95]: ‘Stop civil servants from doing work that enables potential acts of genocide, PCS tells Cabinet Office’. PCS*. *2025. https://www.pcs.org.uk/contact-us/press-media-contacts/stop-civil-servants-doing-work-enables-potential-acts-genocide-pcs-tells-cabinet-office

[96]: Katie Leslie, PCS, speaking at Workers Planet event in Brighton, United Kingdom. 2026.

[97]: ‘Working for Climate Justice’. Institute of Employment Rights. 2023. https://ccccjustice.org/publications/

[98]: Katie Leslie, PCS, speaking at Workers Planet. 2026.

[99]: ‘Climate Action Now’. *Trade Union Coordination Group. *2021. https://www.tucg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/climate-action-now-10-21-2.pdf

[100]: ‘Firefighters Manifesto’. FBU. 2023. https://www.fbu.org.uk/campaigns/firefighters-manifesto-our-service-our-future

[101]: ‘Heatwave: Firefighters’ union urges govt to tax Big Oil to fund cash-strapped responders’. FBU. 2025. https://www.fbu.org.uk/news/2025/06/30/heatwave-firefighters-union-urges-govt-tax-big-oil-fund-cash-strapped-responders

[102]: ‘FBU supports flood task force but calls for statutory duty in England’. FBU. 2026. https://www.fbu.org.uk/news/2026/10/12/fbu-supports-flood-task-force-calls-statutory-duty-england

[103]: ‘Greener Workplace Toolkit’. *Trade Union Congress. *2024. https://www.tuc.org.uk/resource/greener-workplaces-just-transition

[104]: ‘Cool It’. BFAWU. 2025. https://www.bfawu.org/campaign/cool-it/

[105]: ‘Going Green at Greggs with the BFAWU’. *Trade Union Congress. *2019. https://www.unionlearn.org.uk/case-studies/going-green-greggs-bfawu

[106]: ‘Green New Deal Network’.* *Equity. 2022. https://www.equity.org.uk/get-involved/networks/green-new-deal-network

[107]: ‘Theatre Greenbook - making theatre sustainable’. Theatre Greenbook*. *2023. https://theatregreenbook.com/

[108]: ‘The Green Rider’. Equity. 2023. https://www.equity.org.uk/campaigns-policy/the-green-rider

[109]: ‘Organizing for Power’. Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung.* *2026. https://www.rosalux.de/en/o4p

[110]: ‘Training for reps - Unity Works’. Trade Union Congress.* *2026. https://www.tuc.org.uk/unityworks/trainingforreps

[111]: ‘Working for Climate Justice’. Institute for Employment Rights. 2023. https://ccccjustice.org/publications/

[112]: ‘The Future We Choose’. UCU wallchart.* *2020. https://www.ucu.org.uk/publications

[113]: ‘Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition’. Trade Unions Congress Cymru. 2021. https://www.tuc.org.uk/wales/greener-workplaces-just-transition-wales-tuc-toolkit-trade-unionists

[114]: ‘Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition’. Trade Unions Congress. 2024. https://www.tuc.org.uk/resource/greener-workplaces-just-transition

[115]: ‘STUC Climate and Just Transition Political Education Course’. Scottish Trade Unions Congress. 2026. https://padlet.com/rmorrison63/stuc-climate-and-just-transition-political-education-course-6zpkc894ofxxlrdz

[116]: ‘Climate Justice Education Programme for workers & Trade Unions’. Tipping Point. 2026. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HnMKo_FWjofkts20lPN5juYqHwQo7kRCQ2m0_CM0jHA/

[117]: ‘Our Power’. Friends of the Earth Scotland. 2023. https://foe.scot/resource/report-our-power-offshore-workers-demands-for-a-just-energy-transition/

[118]: ‘Moray TUC’. Worker-Climate Project*. *2025. https://workerclimate.org/moray-tuc

[119]: ‘Sheffield TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/sheffield-tuc

[120]: ‘Coventry TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/coventry-tuc

[121]: ‘Dundee TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/dundee-tuc

[122]: ‘Dundee & Tayside - Take Back Our Buses’. Scottish TUC. 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy8e-2M24t0

[123]: ‘Wakefield TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/wakefield-tuc

[124]: ‘Moray TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/moray-tuc

[125]: ‘Aberdeen TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/aberdeen-tuc

[126]: ‘There is an alternative to fracking: Building a climate jobs plan for Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre’. Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre Trades Council. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J58_FzVtRFtPwojSmydk7a26xO0v0aWy/

[127]: ‘Wakefield TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/wakefield-tuc

[128]: ‘Coventry TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/coventry-tuc

[129]: ‘Sheffield TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/sheffield-tuc

[130]: ‘Aberdeen TUC’. Worker-Climate Project. 2025. https://workerclimate.org/aberdeen-tuc

[131]: ‘Voice and Place: How to plan fair and successful paths to net zero emissions’. *Trade Union Congress. *2020. https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/voice-and-place-how-plan-fair-and-successful-paths-net-zero-emissions

[132]: ‘Wales TUC Cymru Greener Workplaces Network’. *Trade Union Congress Cymru. *2023. https://www.tuc.org.uk/wales/wales-tuc-cymru-greener-workplaces-network

[133]: ‘Greener Workplaces for a Just Transition’. Trade Unions Congress Cymru. 2021. https://www.tuc.org.uk/wales/greener-workplaces-just-transition-wales-tuc-toolkit-trade-unionists

[134]: Ibid.

[135]: ‘The Fight for Steel’. UNITE. 2026. https://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/the-fight-for-steel

[136]: ‘A Workers’ Plan for Port Talbot’. UNITE. 2023. https://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/the-fight-for-steel

[137]: ‘Tata seeks more Port Talbot funding’. Mining News Australia. 2026. https://mining.com.au/tata-seeks-more-port-talbot-funding/

[138]: ‘What is the future for steel in Port Talbot?’. The Will Hayward Newsletter. 2026. https://willhaywardwales.substack.com/p/what-is-the-future-for-steel-in-port

[139]: ‘An initial response to the announced closures at Port Talbot’. Greener Jobs Alliance. 2024. https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/an-initial-response-to-the-announced-closures-at-port-talbot/

[140]: ‘Row over ‘scandal’ of Scots green jobs going abroad as Bifab 'loses' cut of major wind farm contract’. *Herald Scotland. *2020. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18812121.row-scandal-scots-green-jobs-going-abroad-bifab-loses-cut-major-wind-farm-contract/

[141]: ‘North Sea Just Transition’. Platform London. 2025. https://platformlondon.org/project/energy-justice/

[142]: ‘Scot. E3’. SCOT E3. 2026. http://scote3.net/

[143]: ‘Bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis to axe 115 skilled manufacturing jobs’. UNITE. 2026. https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2026/march/bus-manufacturer-alexander-dennis-to-axe-115-skilled-manufacturing-jobs

[144]: ‘No furlough compensation for Alexander Dennis after conditions not met’. BBC. 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw98005r7y87o

[145]: ‘How Labour’s ‘Clause V’ manifesto meeting works’. *Labour List. *2019. https://labourlist.org/2019/11/how-labours-clause-v-manifesto-meeting-works/

[146]: ‘A Green Industrial Revolution’. Labour Party. 2019. https://climateemergency.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/GND-Labour-Manifesto-2019.pdf

[147]: ‘BFAWU disaffiliates from Labour Party’. BFAWU. 2021. https://www.bfawu.org/bfawu-disaffiliates-from-labour-party/

[148]: ‘Unite vote to cut Labour affiliation by 40 per cent on the anniversary of the Birmingham bin strike’. UNITE. 2026. https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2026/march/unite-vote-to-cut-labour-affiliation-by-40-per-cent-on-the-anniversary-of-the-birmingham-bin-strike

[149]: ‘Progressive economists reject Unite leader’s criticism of Ed Miliband’. The Guardian. 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/24/progressive-economists-reject-unite-leader-sharon-graham-criticism-ed-miliband

[150]: ‘The Government Unveils Clean Energy Jobs Plan’. Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee. 2025. https://www.hauc-uk.org.uk/news/the-government-unveils-clean-energy-jobs-plan

[151]: ‘Warm Homes Plan’. Gov.uk. 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/warm-homes-plan

[152]: ‘Business, Human Rights and Environment Act’. UNISON. 2026. https://unison.org.uk/campaigns/good-business-matters

[153]: ‘Employment Rights Act 2025’. ACAS. 2026. https://www.acas.org.uk/employment-rights-act-2025

[154]: ‘Putting the union case to parliament’. TUCAN Newsletter. 2026 (9). https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/tucan-newsletters/

[155]: ‘Unions call for effective engagement on climate risks to workers’. *TUCAN Newsletter. *2025 (8). https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/tucan-newsletters/

[156]: ‘Heath, Thorpe and the lost coalition of 1974’. BBC. 2014. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26381917

[157]: ‘Everything You Need to Know About Hot Strike Summer’. *Novara Media. *2022. https://novaramedia.com/2022/07/13/everything-you-need-to-know-about-hot-strike-summer/

[158]: ‘RMT calls for insourcing of all railway staff following GTR nationalisation’. RMT. 2026. https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-calls-for-insourcing-of-all-railway-staff-following-gtr/

[159]: ‘CWU and EP Group Reach Royal Mail Agreement: Press Conference Today’. CWU. 2024. https://www.cwu.org/press_release/cwu-and-ep-group-reach-royal-mail-agreement-press-conference-today/

[160]: ‘After the oil: Jobs and economic impacts from UK offshore decommissioning’. Redwater Insights. 2026. https://www.redwaterinsights.org/research/jobs-and-economic-impacts-from-uk-offshore-decommissioning